Cabbage is bad for chickens?

[ericl]

our chickens LOVE CABBAGE more than any other food! We serve cabbage in the colder months.

 

[sandiatonimarie]

Love the tether ball cabbage! You just saved me $5 since your pic showed me how to do this with a rope rather than buying that treat ball thing! Thanks!

Love your SL wyandotte girl, too - very pretty hen! I love my wyandottes - three gold laced, three silver laces, three blue/black/splash, all with great "petticoats" and "panties".

 

[Carol1463]

My chickens get all sorts that we grow and they have had a lot of cabbage this winter - doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
They love lettuce which they get most days. Corn on the cob when we have it - we cut it into pieces so they get a bit each.

A small bit of bread as a rare treat (run around with it in their beak - like I GOT THE BREAD - I GOT THE BREAD!!!!!!)
Baby tomatoes - one each so they don't squable!
Strawberries. We tried them with half a fresh coconut but wouldn't bother again - hung it up but they were very suspicious!

The odd bit of cooked spaghetti is always fun.
Smorgesbord - thats what we call it! They get so excited when we go towards them with a little tray of bits & pieces

what you got, me first. let me at it!

This helps me also . As I sit with cabbages in my hand looking for an answer !

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Blast from the past...apparently people in 2010 thought cabbage was poisonous to chickens.

Those cave men!

 

[Alliesan648]

From my googling last month about botulism.. I found on poultry DMV that cabbage can be especially bad for botulism.

I had a chicken rapidly decline in health last month, from being fine the day before to fluffed up and listless when I got home from work, I brought her inside and she suddenly was unable to stand and started violently convulsing, I had to put her down.

I had dumped some old cabbage from the fridge into my compost 2 days earlier.. which they have access to while free ranging. Not entirely sure if that’s what it was but I’ve decided not to give them any cabbage now.

 

[K0k0shka]

From my googling last month about botulism.. I found on poultry DMV that cabbage can be especially bad for botulism.

I had a chicken rapidly decline in health last month, from being fine the day before to fluffed up and listless when I got home from work, I brought her inside and she suddenly was unable to stand and started violently convulsing, I had to put her down.

I had dumped some old cabbage from the fridge into my compost 2 days earlier.. which they have access to while free ranging. Not entirely sure if that’s what it was but I’ve decided not to give them any cabbage now.

Old cabbage does not equal fresh cabbage. It's like saying you ate an old, moldy half-fermented tomato and almost died, so you're never eating tomatoes again and telling everybody to stop eating tomatoes. Food that has gone bad is a risk, but that doesn't mean you should stop eating fresh food or feeding your chickens fresh food. The hordes of folks on here who give cabbage to their chickens, give them a fresh whole head to peck at, not fermented leftovers.

 

[Alliesan648]

Old cabbage does not equal fresh cabbage. It's like saying you ate an old, moldy half-fermented tomato and almost died, so you're never eating tomatoes again and telling everybody to stop eating tomatoes. Food that has gone bad is a risk, but that doesn't mean you should stop eating fresh food or feeding your chickens fresh food. The hordes of folks on here who give cabbage to their chickens, give them a fresh whole head to peck at, not fermented leftovers.

Obviously not saying fresh equals bad but just sharing what I read on poultry dvm.
Many flocks are tasked with compost turning duties.. which is rotting food.

Take what you want from it. All I know is I lost my favorite chicken and I have a new paranoia about cabbage.

 

[MarkJr]

I feed mine cabbage all the time. As soon as it starts turning and changes texture in the crisper drawer.
My girls like letting it set for a day or so before tearing it apart. I assume it’s because it draws bugs of some sort.

 

[rjohns39]

It's not a problem anymore...

Before Canada developed Canola it was an issue. Rapeseed meal was heavily used in chicken feed and used to near toxic levels of SMCO. So adding any form of brassica could push to toxic levels.

Canola significantly reduced the levels of SMCO in the meal. Today's feeds are much better balanced and don't rely heavily on either Rapeseed or Canola meal.

Just keep the 10% rule in mind... Treats shouldn't exceed 10% of their total diet.

http://www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/pp/ppack.info?p_psn=212&p_type=all&p_sci=sci
"Brassica oleracea includes common cultivated crops such as kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.
All these vegetables are capable of forming toxic quantities of SMCO, a chemical that can cause hemolytic anemia in livestock. These plants also contain glucosinolates, which can cause goiter. In general, these widely used vegetables are safe for human consumption. Cases of livestock poisoning occur when they are used almost exclusively as fodder for animals (Kingsbury 1964, Smith 1980, Cheeke and Schull 1985, Benevenga et al. 1989). Glucosinolates contained in kale, cabbage, and broccoli (Brassica oleracea) can cause goiter in humans. These plants cause goiter in less than 5% of cases in humans. The chemicals cause a reduction in performance of young livestock, especially swine and poultry (Fenwick et al. 1989). "

A head of cabbage a week, split between some hens shouldn't be any problem at all. Heck, my boyfriend moved our chicken tractor over a poison hemlock plant I hadn't dug up yet. By time I noticed, it was all torn up by the birds. Not sure how much, if any, they ate..... but other than a couple of shell-less eggs (which could have been coincidental) I didn't notice any ill effect. And poison hemlock is pretty darn toxic. I see the list also includes stuff like onions, garlic, apples, buckwheat.....

 

[K0k0shka]

It's not a problem anymore...

Before Canada developed Canola it was an issue. Rapeseed meal was heavily used in chicken feed and used to near toxic levels of SMCO. So adding any form of brassica could push to toxic levels.

Canola significantly reduced the levels of SMCO in the meal. Today's feeds are much better balanced and don't rely heavily on either Rapeseed or Canola meal.

Just keep the 10% rule in mind... Treats shouldn't exceed 10% of their total diet.

What's SMCO? I can't find anything in Google except for some old paper from 1977.

Rapeseed and canola are the same thing. "Rapeseed oil" was renamed "canola oil" for marketing purposes, because people didn't like the word "rape" in their oil. There are different grades of it - food grade and industrial, but it's the same plant.